How to Create an SEO Report in Google Sheets with ChatGPT
Building a meaningful SEO report can feel like panning for gold in a river of data. You're juggling information from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and maybe a few other tools, all while trying to stitch it into a coherent story. This article will show you how to use the combo of Google Sheets and ChatGPT to automate tedious parts of this process and uncover insights you might otherwise miss.
Why Bother Using ChatGPT for SEO Reports?
Before jumping into the steps, it's worth asking: what's the point? Raw data is just a collection of numbers. The value comes from interpretation. ChatGPT acts as a data analysis assistant that can speed up the tedious parts of your workflow, like categorizing keywords or summarizing trends, so you can spend more time on strategy.
Here's what it's good for:
Automating Repetitive Tasks: Manually sorting hundreds of keywords by search intent is a mind-numbing task perfect for a machine.
Finding Hidden Patterns: You can ask ChatGPT to look for anomalies or opportunities in your data, like keywords with high impressions but a low click-through rate.
Generating Content Angles: Based on your top-performing queries, you can ask for blog post ideas, title suggestions, or meta descriptions.
Creating Narrative Summaries: Instead of just sending a spreadsheet to your boss or client, you can have ChatGPT write a quick, human-readable summary of the key takeaways.
The goal isn't to automate the entire process but to make your work faster and more insightful. Now, let's get everything set up.
The Setup: Getting Your Tools Ready
You only need a few things to get started, and they're all free or have free versions.
Google Account Access: Make sure you have permission to view Google Search Console and Google Analytics for the website you're analyzing.
A Blank Google Sheet: This will be our home base for organizing and analyzing the data.
ChatGPT Account: A free account (GPT-3.5) works for basic tasks. For more advanced data analysis where you can upload files, a ChatGPT Plus subscription (using GPT-4) is much more powerful.
(Optional) GPT for Sheets Add-on: To run prompts directly within your Google Sheet, you can install the “GPT for Sheets and Docs” add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace. This is useful for analyzing data row-by-row.
Step 1: Export Your Raw SEO Data
Your report is only as good as its data. We'll pull from two essential sources: Google Search Console (GSC) for search engine performance and Google Analytics for on-site user behavior.
Exporting from Google Search Console
GSC tells you how people find your site on Google. We're interested in two main reports: Queries and Pages.
Log in to Google Search Console and select your property.
Go to the Performance report.
Set your date range (e.g., Last 28 Days, Last 3 Months).
Make sure all four metrics are selected: Clicks, Impressions, Average CTR, and Average Position.
Click on the Queries tab, then click the ‘Export’ button in the top right and choose Google Sheets.
Repeat this process for the Pages tab. You will now have two new Google Sheets, one with keyword performance and one with landing page performance.
Combine these into a single Google Sheet with two separate tabs: "GSC Queries" and "GSC Pages."
Exporting from Google Analytics
GA4 tells you what people do after they land on your website. The key report here is about Landing Page performance.
Log in to Google Analytics.
Navigate to Reports > Engagement > Landing page.
Set the date range to match what you used in GSC.
By default, you'll see metrics like Users, Sessions, and Engagement Rate. Add any conversion columns if you have them set up (e.g., Purchases, Form Submissions).
Click the 'Share this report' icon (top right corner), then select 'Download File' and choose 'Download CSV'.
Open your main Google Sheet, create a new tab called "GA Pages," and then go to File > Import > Upload and select the CSV you just downloaded.
You should now have a Google Sheet with three tabs full of raw data ready for analysis.
Step 2: Using ChatGPT for SEO Analysis & Automation
This is where things get interesting. We'll look at two methods: using an add-on directly in Sheets for simple tasks, and uploading a CSV to ChatGPT for deeper analysis.
Method 1: Direct Analysis in Sheets with the "GPT for Sheets" Add-on
The add-on adds a =GPT() function to your spreadsheet, letting you treat ChatGPT like any other formula. This is perfect for classifying data one row at a time.
Use Case: Classifying Keyword Intent
Search intent — understanding why someone is searching — is fundamental for good SEO. You can use ChatGPT to automatically classify your keywords into common categories: Informational, Transactional, Navigational, or Commercial Investigation.
In your "GSC Queries" tab, add a new column named "Intent."
In the first cell (e.g., F2), enter the following formula. Adjust the cell reference (A2) to match your keyword column:
=GPT("Classify the user search intent for the keyword '" & A2 & "' as Informational, Navigational, Transactional, or Commercial. Respond with only one word.")
Drag down the formula to apply it to all your keywords. It will take a minute to process, but it's much faster than doing it by hand.
You can now filter your keywords by intent to see what kind of questions your audience is asking or what they're ready to buy.
Method 2: Uploading CSVs for Deeper Analysis
For more comprehensive analysis, the ‘Advanced Data Analysis’ feature in ChatGPT Plus is incredibly powerful. You export a specific tab as a CSV and upload it directly.
Use Case: Finding "Low-Hanging Fruit"
Low-hanging fruit in SEO are keywords where you rank on the first page, but not at the very top (positions 4-10). A small bump in rankings can lead to a big increase in clicks. Let's get ChatGPT to find them.
From your "GSC Queries" tab, go to File > Download > Comma Separated Values (.csv).
Open ChatGPT-4, start a new chat, and click the paperclip icon to upload your CSV file.
Use a specific prompt like this:
“I've uploaded a CSV of our Google Search Console keyword data. Act as an SEO analyst. Your task is to identify ‘low-hanging fruit’ opportunities. Filter the data to find keywords that meet the following criteria:- Average position is between 4 and 15- Impressions are greater than 500Present your findings in a table with columns for the Keyword, Clicks, Impressions, CTR, and Position. After the table, explain why these are good opportunities and suggest three general ways I could improve their rankings, such as improving on-page SEO or adding internal links.”
ChatGPT will perform the analysis and give you a prioritized list of keywords to focus on, complete with strategic recommendations.
More Practical Prompts for Your SEO Report
Here are a few more actionable prompts you can adapt for your reporting needs.
Topic Clustering for Content Strategy
Grouping keywords into semantic topics helps you build authority and plan content hubs. Give ChatGPT a simple list of your keywords.
“Here is a list of keywords from our website. Group them into 5-7 distinct topic clusters. Provide a name for each cluster and list the keywords that belong to it. *[Paste your list of keywords here]
Generating an Executive Summary
Your team leader doesn’t have time to wade through hundreds of rows of data. Use ChatGPT to create a concise overview.
“You are an SEO analyst reporting to a marketing director. Based on the data in this CSV, write a 3-paragraph executive summary about our SEO performance over the last quarter. Cover three key points: 1) What is our best-performing content cluster or page?, 2) What is our biggest opportunity for growth?, and 3) What is one potential risk or area of decline we should watch? Use the data to support your points, but keep the language clear and high-level.”
Competitive SERP Analysis Suggestions
Once you have a list of target keywords, you need to know who you're up against.
“For the following keyword, '[your target keyword]', describe the user's likely intent. Then, detail what kind of content would best meet that intent. For example, is the user looking for a list-based article, a how-to guide, a product comparison, or a category page on an e-commerce site?”
Important Limitations to Keep in Mind
While this process is powerful, it's not magic. Keep these limitations in mind:
Accuracy and Hallucinations: Always cross-reference ChatGPT's analysis. It can occasionally misinterpret data or make stuff up. Use it as a starting point, not as an unquestionable source of truth.
Static Data: This method relies on manual exports at a specific point in time. Your data goes stale the moment you download it. It's a snapshot, not a live feed, so you'll need to repeat the process for every new report.
Privacy: Be cautious about uploading highly sensitive user or company data to a third-party AI service. For general SEO metrics like clicks and impressions, the risk is low, but it's always good practice to scrub private information first.
Final Thoughts
Pairing the organizational power of Google Sheets with the analytical assistance of ChatGPT transforms SEO reporting from a tedious data-entry task into a more strategic exercise. You can quickly categorize keywords, identify opportunities hidden in the noise, and produce clear summaries, freeing you up to focus on the work that actually moves the needle.
While the process we outlined is a major step up from purely manual analysis, it still depends on one-off exports and static data snapshots. For a truly real-time view of your performance, we built Graphed. Our platform connects directly to Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and all of your other marketing and sales tools, giving you live dashboards that update automatically. Instead of writing formulas or prompts in ChatGPT, you can just ask questions in plain English, like "Show me my top 10 pages by sessions this month from Google," and get a live chart instantly. It removes the manual work entirely so you're always making decisions on the freshest data.